Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Art as youth sees it

* 335 artists display artwork titled ‘News Item’ at 6th annual Lahore Arts Council exhibition
LAHORE: An exhibition of sculptures, ceramics, paintings and graphic art titled ‘News Item’ was organised by the Lahore Arts Council in Alhamra Art Gallery. The sixth annual exhibition brought together nearly 335 artists who displayed more than 350 art pieces. Hundreds of art students, artists, journalists and people from different walks of life attended the event.

A panel of judges – BNU Assistant Professor Huma Mulji, NCA Associate Professor Quddus Mirza and PU College of Art and Design Assistant Professor Ali Azmat – adjudged the 10 best works. The winners were Abid Aslam, Akbar Ali, Arif Hussain Khokhar, Asad Ali, Isma Hussain, Maria Khan, Sidra Talib, Syed Muhammad Raza, Tasleem Akhtar and Warda Shabbir.

Poverty, innocence, household, live moments, family, traditional and unconventional roles of women, fakirs, maulana, mystic dance, hidden desires, mystery, disgust and many other human passions and roles were depicted in the artistic creations. Artists used different techniques to highlight various social issues. From oil on canvas and pen and ink to watercolour and acrylic on paper, artists expressed themselves through a variety of ways. From realistic portraits to abstract and impressionistic paintings, there was splendid versatility in the techniques used.

Commenting on her work, winner Maria Khan said, “Only the traditional beauty of women is displayed everywhere, while no one likes to look at a fat, dark woman. I’ve painted this character because people stop by and pay attention to an unconventional character outside the mainstream.”

Artist Asad Ali Changaizi playfully used visible and the hidden. “There are different aspects of everyone’s personality and people like to highlight a few,” he said. “People like to point out the most disgusting features of others and fail to appreciate their strengths. So I’ve tried to highlight this tendency among people to notice disgust and ignore positive aspects.”

In her address, NCA Principal Nazish Ataullah said these were the best times for artists as people were getting “democratic spaces” to express varying approaches on the same plane. Lauding the artwork, she said the exhibition drew attention to the young generation’s way of looking at the world. She said such exhibitions gave impetus to upcoming artists. staff report

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